There is a growing movement to shame retailers who dare open their stores on our holiest of American days — Thanksgiving.

It’s not fair, the argument goes, to force employees to leave their tryptophan-high, family-bonding time to sell mildly discounted electronics to the crazy-eyed masses.

Sorry: As every toddler knows, “not fair” is not a persuasive argument. And this charge in particular is just a continuation of today’s busybody, everything-is-an-outrage, everything-should-be-my-way culture.

Yes, for many Americans, Thanksgiving is the most important holiday of the year. The food, the family, the football — it all lends itself to a glorious portrait of a happy American life.

Squint a little and we’re all in the perfect Norman Rockwell painting, free from want and at the home of our beloved, obviously still-married grandparents serving a picturesque turkey.

The reality, however, is very different.

In a country as diverse as ours, Thanksgiving can mean a lot or very little. Some people don’t live near their family, or don’t get along with their family, and prefer to work on that day.

Others value other holidays over Thanksgiving. Some people came to America from Russia as a child with a family that proceeded to celebrate Thanksgiving (on Friday!) with vodka and caviar, same as any other holiday, no turkey in sight.

Nobody polls these people to find their opinions before organizing petitions to push stores to close.

There’s also a whiff of hypocrisy to all of it. The anti-shopping protests inevitably target big-box retailers. Few mind that supermarkets are open on Thanksgiving.

After all, if you need a last-minute can of pumpkin for your pie, you expect to be able to get one. But that’s somehow labeled a “need,” while buying a new TV is not.

We also “need” to travel, apparently. We expect busses and subways to run, toll booths to be staffed and pilots to fly airplanes.

And what about other holidays? Nobody cries for the movie-theater employee working on Christmas Day. Where is the outrage when a veteran has to work on Veterans Day? It happens all the time.

Shopping has long been tied with Thanksgiving. President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week to give extra time for Christmas shopping. And Black Friday became a thing because people woke up from their turkey hangover and headed straight to the shops.

Would it be nice if we had one magical day when our e-mail was quiet, we spent the day ensconced with a loving family and 100 percent of Americans didn’t have to go to work? Sure.

It’s just not realistic — and harping on about shopping on Thanksgiving isn’t going to return anyone to an idyllic time before big-box stores came along and made our convenience their priority.

If you don’t like shopping on Thanksgiving, don’t shop. If enough other people feel the same, closing on Thanksgiving will be a no-brainer for stores.

Until then, though, lay off the lectures for those saving 10 percent on a microwave oven instead of having the Thanksgiving you imagine we all should.